At times cringing, yelling, or jumping around, some of tech's biggest names got drenched with buckets of ice water this week, all for the sake of charity.

CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Dick Costolo, Satya Nadella, John Legere, and others are among the throngs of people who have participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a viral effort to raise funds and awareness for the disease. Celebrities including Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake have joined in, too.

The campaign was started in late July by Massachusetts resident and ALS patient Pete Frates and has taken off since then, with participants nominating others to donate to the cause or dump ice water on their heads (or sometimes both). For instance, Facebook's Zuckerberg was challenged by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and in turn challenged Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. In that time, the ALS Association said Wednesday it's raised $5.7 million in donations, compared to $1.2 million during the same time period last year.

Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, was drenched at the end of a global companywide hackathon, with the winning group -- which focused on new technologies for ALS patients and those with disabilities -- getting to soak the CEO. Both Nadella and Microsoft also made donations to help fight ALS, the company said.

Just before getting drenched, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega challenged his employees to take the challenge, as well.

"AT&T proudly banded together to support Ralph," the company said. "Ralph was also happy to make a donation to the ALS Association on behalf of AT&T."

Legere, T-Mobile's CEO, pledged $100,000 to the ALS cause and is trying to raise a total of $1 million by getting more CEOs to contribute, and Zuckerberg also made a donation, their companies said.

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. It's a neurodegenerative disease that progressively takes away patients' ability to move their muscles, speak, eat, or walk. The ALS Association said donations will go to its current goals of research, care services, and public policy.

About the author

Ben Fox Rubin is a staff writer for CNET in Manhattan, reporting on Amazon, e-commerce and mobile payments. He previously worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and got his start at newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
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